Internal combustion engines (hereinafter, referred to as an “engine”) of automotive vehicles and the like are configured to mix fuel injected from a fuel injection device with air introduced via an inlet pipe to generate a combustible gas mixture, and burn the combustible gas mixture within a cylinder. The engines of this type are known to have a configuration in which a state of mixture between the fuel injected from the fuel injection device and the air has significant influence on engine performances, and specifically, atomization of the fuel injected from the fuel injection device is an important factor which affects the engine performances.
FIG. 39 illustrates a nozzle plate 1002 mounted at a fuel injection port 1001 of a fuel injection device 1000. The nozzle plate 1002 is provided with nozzle holes 1003 having a square shape in plan view and formed so as to increase in size from one end side to the other end side in a plate thickness direction, and is mounted at the fuel injection port 1001 of the fuel injection device 1000 so that the one end side thereof in the plate thickness direction faces a side where the fuel injection port 1001 of the fuel injection device 1000 resides. The nozzle plate 1002 is provided with interference bodies 1005 formed at nozzle hole opening edges 1004 on the other end side in the plate thickness direction, and the interference bodies 1005 are configured to partly occlude the nozzle holes 1003.
The fuel injection device 1000 provided with the nozzle plate 1002 described above is configured in such a manner that when fuel flows out from the fuel injection port 1001, misty fuel F2 that has collided with the interference bodies 1005 and flowing along surfaces 1008 of the interference bodies 1005 collides with fuel F1 flowing along inner wall surfaces 1006 of the nozzle holes 1003, so that the fuels F1 and F2 are atomized and are injected from the nozzle holes 1003 into the inlet pipe (see JP-A-10-122097).